RARE

I've seen this album listed as a proper studio album by Asia rather than as a compilation, but it is probably best left out when listing Asia's "regular" studio output in virtue of the radically different nature of the music found here. Even though this was released as under the Asia name it actually has a lot more to do musically with Geoffrey Downes' solo career and his New Dance Orchestra releases in particular. Like Downes' The World Service album which was released in the same year, Rare is an all instrumental album. It consists of many brief instrumentals, some of which were originally intended for a nature documentary and the others for a computer game. I'm guessing that the two tracks The Journey Begins and The Journey Ends mark the start and the finish of the nature documentary material and the rest of the tracks are the computer game tracks, but I'm not sure about this.

The only two musicians credited are Geoff Downes and John Payne. There are no lead vocals at all but Payne does add some choir vocals. There are some occasional drums and guitars.

While I do find some value in at least some of these compositions, the fact that this music was intended to be accompanied by pictures is evident and it rarely stands on its own feet. It is not bad as background music, but it does sound somewhat incomplete and even unfinished at times. Some of Geoff Downes' solo albums are much better examples of his instrumental side. Rare is for fans only.

Share this ASIA review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#1441349)
• Buy ASIA music online with PA partners
• Show all ASIA MP3/Stream
• Go to ASIA page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Rare page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for ASIA related discussions